The Department of Homeland Security is planning a series of raids targeted at hundreds of people previously ordered removed from the U.S. who have managed to escape deportation.
The campaign is expected to begin in early January and will be overseen by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Hundreds of people out of more than 100,000 who traveled from Central America to the U.S. over the past year will be returned, according to a news report Wednesday night.
The unexpected surge of individuals illegally crossing the border and others who surrender to Border Patrol agents has put DHS and Health and Human Services in a predicament since minors are legally required to be held in detention centers before being released into the interior.
As a result of too little space in detention centers in southern border states, many were given immigration court dates to determine the legitimacy of their asylum claims and then released into the country.
Since then, 90 percent of individuals have failed to show up for court hearings. Because immigration officials are focused on pursuing criminal aliens and other issues, DHS has not had the resources to pursue the tens of thousands of people unaccounted for.
